Starknet vs zkSync Era: The sub-cent transaction race

zkSync wins the fee race

zkSync Era wins the race to sub-cent transactions. Its Airbender prover facilitates transfers near $0.0001. Starknet transactions cost between $0.002 and $0.01. StarkWare aims for an 80% fee reduction in its 2026 roadmap. zkSync holds the cost advantage.

Starknet holds a larger TVL than zkSync Era. Independent trackers place Starknet between $300 million and $600 million in mid-2026. This figure doubled from a November low. zkSync Era TVL sits between $100 million and $200 million. This figure for zkSync covers its whole Elastic Network of 18-plus chains, which includes the main Era chain and private institutional Prividiums. zkSync reported more than 700 million cumulative transactions across its network. Both networks finished their token airdrops in 2024. STRK arrived in February to 1.3 million wallets, while ZK followed in June with a 3.675 billion token distribution. The ZK token powers gas and governance through ZK Nation. This token is the central economic asset for settling all cross-chain activity.

Developers choose differently. zkSync Era supports Solidity and Vyper via its Type-4 zkEVM. Matter Labs manages the zkSync sequencer still. Starknet requires developers to use Cairo. Kakarot provides a Cairo-based zkEVM for Solidity users.

Feature	zkSync Era	Starknet
Proof System	SNARK	STARK
EVM Compatibility	High (Type-4)	Non-EVM (Cairo)
Mid-2026 TVL	$100M – $200M	$300M – $600M
Transaction Fee	~$0.0001	$0.002 – $0.01
Finality	~3 hours	3-6 hours

Throughput and the Quantum Leap

Starknet achieved a 10x throughput increase via its Rust-based sequencer. This v0.12.0 upgrade moved capacity from 30K to 220K CSPS. This improvement relies on Cairo-rs, Blockifier, and Papyrus. These tools use the power of Rust to enhance execution and storage. Failed transactions currently waste up to 66% of the sequencer capacity. Version 0.12.1 will address this by including failed transactions in blocks.

Starknet hits new speeds.

The 2026 Atlas upgrade targets sequencing above 15,000 transactions per second along with one-second finality across its network of chains, even though current throughput remains lower for both networks today.

Can Starknet reach 100 TPS?

Starknet addresses the DOS attack threat by including failed transactions in the block. Rejected transactions sometimes account for over 50% of the sequencer workload. This prevents bots from draining computation capacity with erroneous transactions. Version 0.15.0 will introduce the ability to prove failed transactions on Layer 1. This makes the process trustless. LambdaClass helped develop the Rust sequencer, which does not yet include parallelization.

Decentralization and security

Starknet leads in decentralization. It shipped a decentralized sequencer architecture in its v0.14 release. Staking is already live for STRK and bridged Bitcoin. zkSync’s 2026 staking pilot remains an early step toward decentralization. Matter Labs receives 67M ZK monthly to fund the Prividium roadmap through twelve monthly capped minters. These minters use a 5/7 Program Admin Multisig containing three Foundation signers, two ZKGPS signers, and two Security Council signers.

Starknet uses STARKs. These proofs use publicly verifiable randomness and require no trusted setup. STARKs are also quantum-resistant. zkSync uses SNARKs, which require a trusted setup ceremony. SNARKs have the possibility of being cryptographically cracked by a quantum computer attack.

Starknet is growing.

I would skip zkSync if your project requires native account abstraction without an EVM adapter layer. zkSync fits teams that want to redeploy existing Solidity contracts with minimal rework. Matter Labs focuses on Prividium to provide institutional privacy by architecture and full compliance integration. This roadmap targets the first wave of regulated bank deployments.

zkSync wins.